Apostate 0.1

     Half an hour ago, I decided to blog my conversion to pantser apostate step by step. Twenty-five minutes ago, I figured out 'step by step' reporting was impossible, so I settled for reporting by milepost.

     This is the first milepost.

     So you can follow along, let me tell you how I will organize these posts.
     My conversion shall be based on these two books:
1. Rachel Aaron; 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better and
2. Libbie Hawker; Take Off Your Pants!
     Because I'm lazy, I shall refer to Rachel's book as WFWB and to Libbie's as TOYP.  When it's not too much trouble, I shall italicize the abbreviations. 

     I read both WFWB and TOYP concurrently on my Kindle. I just started 'em.  I've read far enough in WFWB that Rachel has named the three legs of her method -- Knowledge, Time, and Enthusiasm -- and I've read her descriptions of the first two (okay, now I've read all three). In TOYP, Libbie has laid out the Story Core (she chose to capitalize the term) and gave examples, but 16% deep into TOYP she's still selling me the book.
     When I finish both books, the post I write then will be Apostate 2.0.
     When I finish one book, the post I write will be Apostate 1.0.
     Between Apostate 1.0 and Apostate 2.0, the posts will be titled Apostate 1.1, Apostate 1.2, Apostate 1.3, and so on.
     Until I finish the first book the posts will be titled Apostate 0.1, Apostate 0.2, and so on. 

     Get it?  

     In the Gospel according to Rachel, Knowledge is the outline. It is the map that shows you where to go and how to get there. 

     This is what I expected.
     I have mapped out my writing before. I mean, I finished my writing for the day and left myself notes about what I wanted to see happen next in the story, which characters were where, what was at stake, and what I needed to set up the next scene. This was my map. It formed the skeleton for me to write over the next day. And because I appended it to the end of the day's writing, I often literally wrote over it.
     I do not know if this is what Rachel meant by Knowledge, but this is the way I took it. So I spent 5, maybe 10 minutes sketching out where I was going and how I was going to get there in the next several thousand words in my work-in-progress.

     So how did I do in my first day of apostacy? That's all you really care about, isn't it?

     Drum roll . . . .

     Day 1 as an Apostate: 1,424 words. 

     Disappointed? I'm not. That's my third highest daily word count this month. And here is the kicker.
     I spent my morning in a dentist's chair having a crown applied. I started my 'day job' this afternoon, and because I started late, I stayed at it until 8pm. Next came dinner and then I got to write.
     My day's word count came from less than an hour of writing.

     But you wanna know what's really great about that? Greater than the speed? 

     Drum roll . . . .

     I was excited about the writing. I was enthused. I knew where I was going and the words poured out of my fingers. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed writing since 'Certified Street' grabbed me in my sleep and drug me to the keyboard at 3 in the morning.

     Dean Wesley Smith calls his style (pantsing) 'writing into the dark', so I'm not going to apologize for calling pantsing The Dark Side.
     I now write on The Light Side.

The Jedi has returned.